Leaving Technical Writing

It's time to turn out the lights. I've had a great run as a technical writer and consultant but it's time to leave the profession. In some ways I've long outgrown technical writing because client needs as a consultant challenged me and pushed me to become more than just a technical writer.

I've accepted the position of director of product management for Integra5, a leader in helping cable and IPTV operators “blend the bundle” to provide real-time communications across TVs, PCs,mobile devices, and landline phones.

Product management  is the next natural step in my career and I am excited about this next move.

It's funny that the best advice I ever received about technical writing was from a frustrated programmer who advised me in no uncertain terms that if I made an attempt to understand the technology and the business it would be a differentiator for me as a technical writer and make me more of an asset to project teams.

Technical Writers Today
I am leaving the profession at a good time with all the economic issues that are abounding because the technical writing profession has long been doing a disservice to itself and I have to say the IT industry has short changed the technical writing profession.

The technical writing profession is still suffering from writers who don't think they don't need to know about the technologies they are tasked to write about. Ignorance is never an asset to a technical writer. Never ever. It's an industry myth and believing in it short changes the project, customer, and the project team. To ask the best questions on highly technical projects, you have to be savvy about the technology, business, and the user community. You don't have to be a technical expert but in today's resource constrained times -- you are only helping your employer/client, developers, and other team members by being able to carry a full load of work.

The IT industry has also short changed technical writing and technical writers because few if any organizations know the importance of good documentation so documentation and technical writer salaries are not line items that people want to deal with until of course there is customer push back on a documentation related issue so management must react.

The STC is also part of the problem because they have yet to grasp that a technical writer needs to be more than just a writer. They are also lost in tall grass because they are an association marketing to writers and have yet to grasp the other important business, interpersonal, and analytical skills technical writers need to bring to the table in order to best support their employers/clients and projects and not be so cloistered in academia, User Experience, Single Sourcing and other topics that appeal to just writers but which the harried technology manager may not grok because he has fires to put out and just wants to make sure his documentation is delivered.

I kept my STC membership for years when I was a contractor and consultant so I knew what I was working against when it comes to where the mind of the typical technical writer is at because so many hiring managers have had problems with technical writing. I marketed myself as the technical writer to call when the first team drops the ball or you need a technical writer to whom you can offput all your documentation worries so you can worry about more important things on the project.

Bottom line, if as a technical writer you cannot hang with the programmers, engineers, product managers, and project managers around you without significant handholding there is going to be trouble for you in the impending economic downturn.

Final Words

The current debauching of our economy should send up a flare to technical writers everywhere that the game is changing.

I had a good run as a technical writer and consultant and learned so much more than if I took the safe and salaried route through my career.

It's time for me to start a new chapter of my career.

AMF, technical writing!

Comments

[justelise]

FINALLY! It's so great to hear this from another yechnical writer. I am exhausted by working with technical writers who have no IT experience, and cannot handle the most basic of technical concepts (security, software and hardware issues and limitations, etc.) and less technical concepts (Usability, UI problems, etc). I am tired of hearing the, "I'll be able to get all the information I need by interviewing the SME" line of crap. I am tired of managers (functional, not project managers) ignoring me when it comes time for training (ITIL, product training), because our roles are "non-technical" and we "do not need technical knowledge or training to perform our duties." It's absurd! How can you document something if you don't have a grasp of the fundamentals?!

I am proud of the technical knowledge that I worked hard to accumulate. I am tired of being beaten out for technical writing jobs by people simply because their education is in English, Journalism, or Communications. These are the same people who produce terrible documentation, because they have no grasp of the product, and essentially write exactly what they're told by the SME.

I never joined the STC because I never saw any value in it. Coming from a technical background (IT, Helpdesk, Tech Support, Web Content Development), you're an outsider in that organization, and my limited experience speaking with members confirmed that for me.

I am just glad that I am not the only one, and I wish you the best in your new position! Hopefully there are more people that think like you who will help turn the tide in the field.

[Will]

Dear justelise:

Thanks for your comment. It was good to hear from somebody that shares mhy view on the current state of technical writing in the IT industry.

[digraph]

Well how about that! Good luck Mr. Kelly!

I agree with you (and pretty much on all your previous posts) on just about everything you wrote above.

The one thing I would add is that while it's incumbent on us to sell ourselves to management, it would also be good to find companies where management knows the value of good technical documentation and wants to leverage it for a better product.

As much as it's a controversial topic, I think that technical writers would be more valued if they were a part of the marketing department, rather than engineering. It would give them the user-oriented perspective that they always pay lip-service to.

:)